Downton Abbey star Samantha Bond makes musical debut

Thursday 23 January 2014 11:35 BST

Downton Abbey star Samantha Bond is fulfilling a dream by making her debut in a West End musical — and reaping the benefits of childhood ballet lessons.

The former Miss Moneypenny in James Bond films performs in the manner of Ginger Rogers with Fred Astaire in the new musical Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, based on the 1988 film starring Michael Caine and Steve Martin as two conmen on the French Riviera.

And she has even surprised herself by singing, too, in the role of Muriel Eubanks, a glamorous divorcée looking for love in the new show which also stars Robert Lindsay and Rufus Hound as the rival crooks.

Bond, 52, said she was thrilled to be asked. “I feel as though I’m about 10 years old and living a dream. I spend most of rehearsals in a state of heightened excitement. A lot of the big production numbers are thrillingly Broadway.”

There was no time for singing and dancing lessons so “for the first time in the last 25 years of my career I was a complete unknown quantity in the rehearsal room”.

But she added: “I did ballet when I was a child. And there was a glorious moment when I hit a pose and the director said, Am I seeing ballet?

“My body sort of knows what it’s doing. I feel like a kid in a sweet shop. I’m a supporting role and it’s going to be absolutely thrilling. It is the most wonderfully funny show. It’s a cracker.” The actress, who is married to Alexander Hanson, currently starring in the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical Stephen Ward, added: “Being married to Alex, I’ve seen a lot of musicals and our ensemble is second to none.”

Katherine Kingsley, 32, who was last seen alongside Sheridan Smith in A Midsummer Night’s Dream and now takes the key role of Christine Colgate, praised both Bond and Hound for their unexpected talents as singers and dancers. Lindsay won an award for the musical Me and My Girl.

Hound, 34, who made his name in TV comedy quizzes, said he had lost the capacity to write jokes and was fed up with “disposable” television, so could not believe his luck to get his musical break. “I love musicals,” he said.